June 04, 2026

The International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) successfully concluded its 2026 annual events, hosted in ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), ISRO in Bengaluru, India. The intensive five-day gathering brought together leading planetary scientists, data engineers, and space agency representatives from across the globe to advance international standards for planetary data archival, long-term preservation, and seamless inter-agency scientific interoperability.

International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA), founded in 2006, is a premier global collaboration of space agencies and planetary data organizations. Its core mission is to establish and promote unified standards, protocols, and best practices among planetary data archives worldwide, ensuring that valuable scientific data from deep-space missions remains accessible and usable for the global scientific community over the long term.

The IPDA-2026 kicked off with a three-day technical workshop and demonstrations from May 18–20, 2026, followed by the IPDA Steering Committee meeting from May 21–22, 2026, jointly organised by Indian Space Science Data Center -ISTRAC, Signal & Image Processing Area- SAC & Science Programme Office, ISRO-HQ.

The workshop was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri A S Kiran Kumar, Member, Space Commission & Chairman, Apex Science Board in the presence of Directors – URSC, ISTRAC LEOS and Programme Offices of ISRO HQ.

The workshop was organised in 5 technical sessions which was delivered by experts and researchers engaged in deep-dive tutorials on fundamental planetary data infrastructures from various space organisations like ESA, NASA, Europlanet, JAXA, AstroMat, ISRO/DOS, CNES etc. Around 120 participants across the country participated in this workshop. The workshop also saw robust participation from Chandrayaan-4, Chandrayaan-5, and the Venus Orbiter Mission payload teams.

Significantly, the workshop introduced specialized tracks dedicated to data archival frameworks for sample return missions—a rapidly evolving domain requiring rigorous global standardization. Training was also conducted on the Table Access Protocol (TAP), an ongoing IPDA initiative aimed at breaking down data silos by standardizing access across three major domains: planetary, solar, and astronomy sciences.

The annual Steering Committee meeting, which was conducted during the last two days, served as the core event, bringing together major space organizations alongside the host agency, ISRO. Delegates from each participating agency presented comprehensive progress reports on their planetary data management achievements over the past year. The committee engaged in highly productive discussions addressing contemporary technical and operational challenges faced by space agencies, sharing critical lessons learned, and evaluating how emerging technologies can be leveraged to modernize global planetary data systems.

By hosting this prestigious annual event, ISRO reinforces its commitment to open science and international collaboration, ensuring that the wealth of data generated by current and future deep-space exploration missions is preserved to the highest global standards for generations to come.